Hearing Hoof Beats
by Novi T. Foxtrot
Summary: “When you hear hoof beats you think horse, not zebra.” Said Harm. “Ah, the dead girlfriend wasn’t who you were expecting in your living room.” Diane tried to joke.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This comes from a larger unpublished universe, but I felt that these couple scenes could stand on its own. Maybe, eventually, I will get around to finishing it to a point that it is publishable. Anyways, enjoy. Oh yeah, and as always I own none of these characters.**

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Harmon Rabb, Jr. pulled his Lexus SUV into the garage before climbing out. He checked his watch, noting it was shortly after 1:30. Mattie, his daughter, wouldn't be home for another hour and a half. That still gave him plenty of time to finish preparations. He had hoped to have the day off work to celebrate Mattie's birthday, but the best he could do was come straight home from the Pentagon where he had spent the morning in the semi-monthly liaison meeting between JAG and the Navy Secretariat.

They had spent most of the morning talking through one case in particular. Twenty-five days ago, Joshua Schultz, a petty officer in Southern California had gone on a rampage first at his parents' home killing both before driving to his girlfriend's office where she served as the Yeomen for the Commander of the Regional Legal Services Office on the San Diego Naval Base. Continuing his rampage he killed his girlfriend, the Regional Commander, and seven other people before running out of ammunition. It had left the community stunned and the JAG corps was still in shock. Harm as Deputy Judge Advocate General for Pretrial Investigation was overseeing the investigation from Washington. His wife of four years, Sarah Mackenzie, the Chief of Staff at the JAG Headquarters had flown out three weeks ago to oversee the now shattered office in San Diego.

"Maria," Harm called up the stairs from the foyer. "I'm home."

"Si, Senior," he heard echo from the otherwise quiet upstairs of the house. She must be putting his little boy down for a nap. He knew if he headed upstairs now, the boy would never go down. So out of habit he went to put his briefcase down in his home office in the basement, which also held the gym, and playroom. His wife's office on the other hand was up on the third floor with the bedrooms. When they bought the house shortly after getting married they had noted that perhaps a full floor between their respective offices would mitigate a conflict of interest. After all their offices at headquarters shared a wall, they often joked. But really, their respected prevues were so different now that the only time they faced off was over budget allocations and what to make for dinner. He couldn't remember the last time either one of them had been in court.

Pulling the files out of his briefcase he realized that he was missing several that he needed to have reviewed by the morning staff meeting. He glanced at his watch, realizing that at 1:30 in the afternoon without traffic he could make it to the office and back in less than twenty minutes.

Walking back upstairs he called out "I left a file at the office; I'll be back in less than half an hour."

Striding out the door, he put his cover under his arm, and pulled his keys from his pocket. Walking into the garage he paused, a smile gracing his lips. Leaving the SUV in the garage, he climbed into his vintage 1969 red Corvette. He backed out of the drive and turned down his street. He leaned over to fiddle with the radio as he passed a silver Lexus coming in the opposite direction. With the music playing he accelerated, easily shifting gears as the car cruised around the curve that would take him away from the cove of the lake the house sat on, and towards Columbia Pike and on to the office.

Having checked the house address twice, the Lexus turned into the driveway the Corvette had just left. A brown haired woman stepped out of the car, straightening her shirt before reaching into the car for her bag.

Standing on the porch, she wasn't sure what she should do. She should have just mailed the letter, she thought, instead of delivering it in person. But she had wanted to see Harmon. She wanted to see his life. Reaching into her large handbag for the envelope she had stuck in the latest book she was reading. She had finally decided she wasn't going to knock, just place it in the crack of the door, when the door opened.

"Senora Rabb." A heavy set Hispanic women with a bottle in hand called, a smile spreading across her face in greeting. Confused at the entire situation, the woman on the porch could barely make out the words 'harm… office… forgot…happy you… home." Every so often a "Senora Rabb" was thrown in for good measure. It was difficult to understand through the woman's deep accent and broken English." From somewhere in the house a cry could be heard. The women held out the bottle towards her, at Diane's blank look the women said "I go feed baby." The older Hispanic women turned and headed towards the stairs leaving the door wide open.


	2. Chapter 2

At first the woman on the porch had just stood there unsure about what to do, waiting for Senora Rabb to come to the door. Eventually her curiosity had gotten the better of her. Indeed she deeply desired to see this life that she had willfully given up. She would just leave the letter on the table by the door, she reasoned to herself.

She walked through the foyer and into the main living area of the house. Glancing around the room, she noticed the loving care that went into the selected contemporary décor. The sage green couch and the plum colored walls brought out the honeyed colors of the woods in the room. Although sweeping views of the lake normally enthralled visitors her eyes were drawn towards the mantle, covered in pictures. There were many people that she didn't recognize, but then she stopped, frozen by the sight in front of her. Frozen by the image of herself in a wedding gown, of herself with a swollen tummy, herself holding a small child no more than four or five, herself holding a tiny bundle wrapped in blue, a family photo of four with herself smack dab in the middle, Harm with his arm around her as she protectively cradled a tiny baby, whose older sister in a Christmas dress looked on lovingly. She didn't know what to think; as sure as she was that it was her in the pictures, she was sure that she had no recollection of those events. Searching her mind, she remembered being in Europe and Japan, she had no children, she had never been married.

"Sarah." A voice softly called from behind her, instantly she recognized it. As she turned to face him she briefly wondered why he was calling her Sarah. But when she gained her first look at him she froze, mentally tracing the lines that had been added with age, the myriad of changes that had occurred in the last eight years.

Slowly a grin spread across his face, "Mattie's will be so surprised. And here I thought you would be stuck in San Diego for another two weeks." As he neared her he reached out a hand softly stroking her cheek. Her questions about how he knew when she would be returning to the US were lost as he leaned forward and brushed his lips across her forehead, across her closed eyelids and the tip of her nose, skimming down her cheekbones before landing feather light on her lips.

Diane stood paralyzed, this was not the response she had expected. She thought that his temper would get the better of him, that there would be yelling and screaming, acquisitions, questions, disbelief. She had pondered through his response many a time since deciding to return to her old life, but never in her wildest dreams had she expected him to readily kiss her, to want her back.

Her mind had long ago been trained in cryptology, in solving puzzles, and although her entire being wanted to fall into this man, she knew things did not add up, that there was something wrong, that one plus one did not equal the three in front of her.

So she pulled back, "Harm?" She called.

"God, Sarah." He breathed the words, "I missed you" before reclaiming her lips.

The words lapped over her like ocean waves on a sun kissed rocky beach, full of the warmth from the summer sun, no she shook herself, pulling away, something was not right. "Harm, why do you keep calling me Sarah?"

"Mac? Why are you…" He trailed off at her look of confusion.

"Who's Mac?" Diane asked.

"Mac, did something happen? Are you tired? Did you hit your head?" Harm asked concerned.

"No. Why would you think…" Diane stopped her thought at the look of fear and panic that crossed his face.

"Harm, it's me Diane."

At first Harm didn't respond. "Real funny Mac, this isn't April Fool's day."

"I'm not joking, Harm. I don't know who Mac is. I'm Diane. Diane Schonke." She said, slowly fear was creeping into her voice. "At least I think I am."

"I'm serious Mac."

"So am I Harmon Rabb Jr."

"You can't be Diane, Diane Schonke is dead." Harm said matter of factly, his mind wrapping around the rationalization.


	3. Chapter 3

"I didn't die Harm. It's complicated, but I didn't die." Harm just stared at her, his earlier concern and fear slowly melting away from his face, when he abruptly turned and walked out of the room, leaving Diane once again standing alone in the room as confused as ever.

Harm meanwhile, walked into the kitchen, grabbing the cordless phone from where he had left it that morning on the counter. Dialing the number for JAG headquarters, Harm waited not so patiently, "Jen," Harm called her name out relieved, "it's Rabb, I need to speak to the Admiral, it's extremely urgent."

"Hold on I'll patch you through."

"Rabb is everything alright, Jen said it was urgent. "We're still on for the special birthday dinner at 6?"

"Yes." Harm took a deep breath, he didn't know where to start.

"Harm is something wrong?" The Admiral

"Yes. No. I actually really don't know." Harm said, a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Tell me what's wrong, son." The slight traces of fear laced into Harm's tone alerted the Admiral that this call was more personal than professional.

"Do you know where my wife is? You didn't approve travel orders for Mac to come home, did you? To surprise Mattie perhaps? Oh God, she wasn't hurt was she, maybe some sort of head injury?"

"Harm what are you talking about? I spoke with the Colonel this morning from California."

Harm didn't speak, the adrenaline still pumped through his body.

"Harm, tell me what's wrong."

"Admiral, if Mac is still in San Diego, than Diane Schonke is standing in my living room."

" Isn't she dead?"

"I thought so too Sir." Standing across the room, Harm met Diane's eyes. Acknowledging to himself for the first time that indeed Diane may not be dead.

Hanging up the phone, Harm carefully looked at the women now standing in the doorway. He mentally brought up a picture of his wife in his head, comparing it to the woman in front of him. This woman held herself differently, he noted. A little less sure; her hair was longer, shorter than Mac kept it for ease of use, and this women's makeup was a bit more pronounced than how Mac like"d to wear it.

"You're Diane?" Harm finally asked.

"Yes."

"Okay." He said in acceptance. "Okay," he said as he formulated his thoughts, "you need to leave or we at least need to take this outside."

"I understand you are upset, but…"

Harm continued, "I'm not, but I have two children here and while at eight Mattie would be confused, Matthew would only be upset by seeing you."

"Seeing me?" She asked confused.

"You bear a striking resemblance to their mother whom neither had seen in four weeks."

Slowly the pieces were coming together inside Diane's head. Maybe Harm wasn't crazy, maybe Harm hadn't photo shopped a world where she existed. "Their mom? Mac? Sarah? Your wife?" She questioned.

"Yes, you two bear a striking resemblance. You want to try to handle the disappointment of an eight year old who thinks her mother came home to surprise her for her birthday or to a twenty-two month old, who hasn't seen his mother in four weeks. Anyways to them you would probably look exactly alike. Hell, you did to me, when I first walked into my living room."

"But we don't look alike now?" She asked.

"When you hear hoof beats you think horse, not zebra."

"Ah, the dead girlfriend wasn't who you were expecting in your living room." Diane tried to joke. She always had used humor to deflect awkwardness. Really it had been their common sense of humor and practical joking that had a made them friends in the first place.

"Your physical similarities don't out number your differences." Harm said cryptically.

"Is that why you married her, because we look similar?" Diane asked curiously. If Harm had an eight year old, then the little girl had to have been conceived right after her own supposed death, "Or was it a shotgun wedding, Harmon Rabb the Honorable." Diane tried to tease.

"Sarah's her own women." Harm said defensively. "And Mattie's adopted." Harm clarified. In that moment, his desire to protect his wife and child from this intruder into their home ragged inside of him. "Maybe it's best if you leave."

"I'm sorry Harm, I just… I didn't mean to be accusatory, I just it seemed like the most logical, it just sorta came out."

Harm smiled as Diane continued to ramble, long of "No Sir, Yes Ma'am," Diane never could find her words, she had always been better dealing with numbers and codes.

"Again, horses and hoof beats," Harm said in understanding, "and you find out it's a zebra, welcome to my world." Harm tried to explain.

"I knew you would move on, but this is all…"

"Surreal?" Harm offered. Diane smiled.

"Maybe that's a good word to describe seeing you settled down with a wife and two kids, Mr. Cruise."

"No one's called me that since before Diane…" He trailed off as he looked at the woman in front of him, something akin to sadness crossed his eyes.

"Before I what?" Diane asked suddenly curious as to Harm's silence.

"Before you died." He said as sorrow and regret filled his voice.

"Clearly you are going to need some time to process this. I shouldn't have just walked back into your life unannounced." Diane rooted around in her bag pulling out a business card and the envelope she had first intended to leave stuck in the door. "Call me at this number when you're ready to talk, I wrote you a letter…"

Harm took the offered objects.

"I'm glad that you were able to find happiness Harmon." She said leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek. She turned towards the hall, the clack of her heals against the wood floor paused as she froze at Harm's voice.

"I'm glad you're okay too, Diane." She slowly nodded her head, before reaching for the door and letting herself out. Harm watched through the window as Diane climbed into her car, backed out of the driveway, and drove down the Virginia street out of sight.

If it wasn't for the envelope grasped tightly in his hand, Harm wouldn't have been sure the whole incident wasn't a figment of his imagination.


End file.
